Car sales in Europe have dropped for five straight months, and with every month the downturn is getting worse. The Range Rover Evoque is such a hit the company is hiring 1,000 new employees and moving to three shifts to keep up with demand. Volkswagen will build Porsches at its plant in Osnabrück, Germany to handle overflow from Porsche’s main factory in Zuffenhausen. All that and more, plus a look at a motorcycle that supplier Visteon developed for growing markets.

Hello, I’m John McElroy. Welcome to Autoline Daily for Friday, March 16. And now the news.

EUROPE’S SAGGING SALES
Well, maybe this really isn’t news, because I think we all know that car sales are plummeting in Europe. Ward’s reports they’ve now dropped for five straight months, and with every month the downturn is getting worse. Even in Germany, which has pretty much weathered the storm, sales are starting to soften. I keep saying that the European industry is going to have to go through a restructuring to bring capacity in line with demand. That’s going to be very painful to do, but until it’s done, the mass-market brands in Europe are going to lose a lot of money for a long time to come.

LAND ROVER BOOSTS PRODUCTION
But some European brands are doing just fine. The Range Rover Evoque is such a hit the company is hiring 1,000 new employees and moving to three shifts at its Halewood plant in England to keep up with demand. The Evoque was named North American Truck of the Year which helped increase awareness. But the Land Rover brand is doing well because production of the Freelander 2 will be increased as well.

PORSCHE SHIFTS PRODUCTION
Porsche is also going to get some major cost savings. In a move that may sound sacrilegious, Vee Dub will build Porsches at its plant in Osnabrück, Germany. According to WardsAuto, the facility will handle overflow production from Porsche’s main factory in Zuffenhausen. Finnish company Valmet Automotive used to build Boxsters, but Porsche phased that out last year.

BRAZIL, MEXICO REACH TRADE AGREEMENT
Now to Brazil, where the car market has been running strong for a number of years. Even though Brazil has a strong auto industry, imports are soaring. The country recently imposed import tariffs to slow down Chinese imports, but the problem isn’t just with China. Now Mexico has agreed to put a three-year cap on vehicle exports to Brazil. Last year Mexico exported 147,000 vehicles to Brazil which was double the year before. Brazil now has a $1.5 billion trade deficit with Mexico in the automotive sector.

BRIDGESTONE AIRLESS TIRE
A few days ago we showed you an airless tire from Goodyear that’s made up of hundreds of load-bearing springs and is intended for space exploration. But it’s not the only company working on a tire that doesn’t use air. Bridgestone recently introduced this airless concept. The spokes within the tire are made from reusable thermoplastic resin which, along with the rubber in the tread, is 100 percent recyclable. This concept offers a lot of possibilities. You would never need a spare and could incorporate some of the suspension into the tire itself.

NEXT-GEN JEEP LIBERTY ENGINE DETAILS
The Jeep Liberty is a total boat anchor. Sergio Marchionne even admitted it himself during a press conference at the Detroit Auto Show in January. At that same event he also commented on the next-generation version of the SUV. He said the new Liberty will REDEFINE its segment. Strong words, but, not surprisingly, he stopped short of giving away any meaningful details about it. Fast-forward a couple months and a new report hints at what may be going under the truck’s hood. It’s expected to be powered by Chrysler’s award-winning Pentastar V-6 engine and a ZF-sourced nine-speed automatic transmission. No real surprises here, except for the powerplant. The current Pentastar weighs-in at 3.6-liters, but the one going in the Liberty is rumored to displace just 3.2. This would be the first real variation of the engine. Smaller or not, the Pentastar will absolutely blow the Liberty’s existing 3.7-liter V-6 out of the water. It churns out a measly 210 horsepower, just as it has for more than a decade.

Coming up next, a look at a motorcycle that supplier Visteon developed for growing markets.

VISTEON GROWTH MARKET BIKE
Automakers are pouring money into emerging markets in order to boost profits. But a lot of people in those areas still rely on motorcycles to get around. That’s why Visteon and 3M developed what they call a Growth Market Bike to offer technology to customers at a low cost. We recently got a chance to look at the bike and find out what it’s all about.

Visteon says it has already showed the Growth Market Bike to motorcycle builders in India and the company says that all the technologies that were just highlighted are ready to use.

And that wraps up this week’s reports on the global automotive industry. Thanks for watching, have a great weekend and we’ll be back right here on Monday.

Errrr. Been there. Done that . We’ve already hashed it out on site .. and the mover verifies my previous prediction of the Evoque selling gang busters in spite ( test drove one PDL so no complaints on your end please ) of the car being a blatantly miserable for the $$$ vehicle

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EUROPE’S SAGGING SALES

Errrrrrr…. once again . Ooops . Ben there , Done that as well . You guys want me to handle the overseas stuff maybe ?

Both old and new ….. on Jalopniks poll today on muscle cars . Jump in and vote for your fav’s . Mines ( the FORD’s ) ahead . Kicking the tail out of the new Challenger and the new Camaro

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F1 – Practice – Australia

The Mercedes is looking good . The McLaren’s are looking better ( both on track and appearance )

The Ferrari looks like a dog on track

And IMHO Red Bull was sand bagging this morning

Everyone else was just another also ran

BTW Kimi was eyeing the Aussie V8 cars extensively : with a look that said he may know his future at Lotus is limited ( due to Lotus’s money woes ) so perhaps looking at a Plan B if needed

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VISTEON BIKE

Its a good idea : but maybe a day too late as the entire Motorcycle Industry’s been on the wane for going on Five years now ( another good reason why saying Audi is considering buying Ducati is to profit ….is flat out wrong )

Hopefully something/someone will come along with a Bike that’ll revive the market as well as get some more practical transportation on the streets Worldwide than more cars of any sort . Especially here in the US

Thats the better than yesterdays news for today , from your local friendly ( most of the time ) AutoAnarchist

BWTM !

One last on the bailouts .

Remember when a certain US automaker used Jefferson Starships ” We Built this City ‘ to promote their involvement with Detroit ?

Methinks the revised 2012 lyrics should read like this;

We Built this City
On cars and trucks
We abandoned it for Mexico
And now its a Mess

We’re not coming back to fix it
Though we broke it ourselves
We think we’ll just leave it
To Obama and his Elves
8)

John, does the European market have a number similar to our SAAR reported number. Do you have any real numbers (for us dummies, me) to more visualize the ‘absolutes’.

It does appear that Europe is also a fairly open automobile market (not closed to Asian, American, etc. manufacturers); it’s about time (way past about) that the Asians start playing on a level field. I will give some credit for China (at least presently) for an open (sort-of) market.

ALMS wretches may wish to click over to ESPN3.com at 3:15 to watch qualifying for Sebring. Then at about 9pm ET, SpeedTV.com will stream practice for the Australian F1. Both are guaranteed ‘Buggittee’ free zones.

I’ve seen a variation of this by Michelin and Continental I believe. The engineer at the display called it a “Wheel Module” and said it would last the life of the car. When I questioned him on this, lifetime came to be 100,000 miles. The estimated cost of this “module” was in the 1500-2000 range each for a mid-size car. True, you have no spare, also if there is a “problem” with module, you have to tow it to the nearest repair shop, since it was not designed to changed on the side of the road.

@ C-tech – Actually Porsche built and designed VW’s – Then used the VW as the foundation for its Porsche sports cars – then split away from VW – partnered with them later on the 914-914/6 – then split again – partnered with Audi … not VW on the 924 – told them to take a leap afterwards as well – then got too big for their britches – played a nasty financial scheme ( manipulated the market ) trying to Buy VW- Audi – which blew up in their faces – and now VW-Audi owns Porsche .

The Visteon “bike”looks more like a sales pitch for the products Visteon and 3M sells which can be ADAPTED to bikes. I wonder if these items might be better suited to be adapted to more profitable bikes.

Just a few thoughts on the City of Detroit. The Automakers did NOT cause the decline of Detroit. Bad decisions and mismanagement cause the decline. Before the riots in 1968, Detroit had over 1.5 million residents. “White Flight” in the 1970′s, Black “Middle Class Flight” in the 1980′s caused the city to lose about 1/3 of its population – a lot of them working / taxpaying / business building people. My owm personal trip was being transferred to Detroit in the 1980′s (Go Tigers!), finding myself paying 3% income tax on top of sales tax, and property tax for poor gov’t services (there were a few top flight people in city hall – Ted Jordan, bless his soul – but for every good worker you probably had 7 lousy or incompetent workers). Just across 8 mile road, my taxes were lower, neighborhood and schools better. Ford headquarters was in Dearborn Mi., American Motors in Southfield, Mi., Chrysler in Highland Park, Mi. (later moved to Auburn Hills, Mi.) and VW-Audi of America in Troy, Mi. Dodge city plant complex is mostly in Warren Mi., East Jefferson – where the Jeep Grand Cherokee / Dodge Durango is built is in Detroit. My rambling point being it was not the big 3 that ruined Detroit, bad management and overtaxation did.

Nice try . Aint buyin it. Everybody’s has those problems in most every city in the US . Ya should a seen the taxes i was laying down for living within the Denver Metro area , NYC then LA then Vancouver BC then Seattle and now KC all for pretty much nothing when I was there ( Ask HtG about NYC in the 70′s … shudder …. ) Bad decisions are not a Cities downfall . If that were the case no City in the US would still be standing . Its the exodus of Business & Manufacturing that kills a city deader than a door nail . Which the mighty Big Three have been doing ( exiting ) since … what ? the 60′s ? All in the name of greed and higher profits , whilst sticking their heads in the Sand , not paying attention to Business , the world around them or their customers ……. and poof !

Result ? One very DOA Detroit . Say what you will but the fact is we’ve been subsidizing the Big Three since the late 60′s / Bailed Chysler out going on round number 4 ( when FIAT does a flopper ) and GM’s been sucking blood from the American Tax Payer well before the 2008 crash and burn .

And now we ( Tax Payers ) get to pay for the Big Three’s mistakes in the ( Greater) Detroit area as well . Really nice .

And that’d be the Greater Detroit area we’re talkin bout , not the City proper . We ARE a commuting nation you know . And all those mansions now selling for pennies on the dollar weren’t built for Elves now were they .

@ #26
I had almost forgotten about those days. It’s really too bad that Chrysler did not see fit to develop a second generation Pt Cruiser. They had a unique vehicle and a group of buyers who were willing to spend money to buy it, customize it, and maintain it. The Dodge Hornet concept car I think would have made a great second generation Pt Cruiser.

@19 & 21 – I am not buying it either. In your impressive list of places lived none of them spell Detroit. I’ve lived in some of those places too. Only LA even approached Detroit in malfeasance. The rest of my life was spent here.

I’ll be “buying it” from those that have lived here and watched the city decline for the last 50 years. C-Tech’s @17 hits the nail on the head and is a major but not the only contributor of Detroit’s decline. Also, Michigan, has lost around a million jobs in the last 10-12 years. Automotive certainly contributed to that number, but it wasn’t all. We’ve been in a one state depression almost that long. Those job losses are the major driver here. So I can tell you most assuredly Detroit is not the only city in Michigan about to get “help” called an Emergency Financial Manager from the state government.

The fact is the government loan has been repaid in full, and with interest years ahead of schedule. The balance of the government’s involvement is called stock. Last time I checked that’s not a loan. The government owns the stock, and they are free to sell or keep it until 2134 if they wish. The government has no more influence than any of the other 200,000 plus investors who own stock on this company, other than if they decide to exercise their rights as stockholders. Many of those are mutual funds and other institutions who wield considerable influence as their stock holding allow. I suppose at their will, the government doesn’t have a representative on the board. They could if they wanted, but they don’t.

I have worked on the Volt since from almost day one of it’s production version, long before Obama was even a senator. The Volt is the next step in the evolution of GM’s electric vehicle efforts. Everything else external to that is ex post facto.

Why not just give it a rest, and put your considerable energy towards something that matters, like the future, where you can have an impact, instead of the past where all your harangues go for naught?

And according to Dubya, the industry, including GM, pays $150 billion a year in taxes. I don’t know where he got that number so lets just say he was mistaken and it’s only $100 billion. You’re telling me that $100 billion a year in revenues to the federales doesn’t matter, isn’t worth bailing out?

We can all speculate on what should’ve happened, but what actually DID happen as a result of the way events went down (and for your info I don’t like the stock thing either, and still think it’s wrong)is GM paid it’s share of that $100 billion of those taxes without interuption, hired an additional 17,000 employees who are now paying however much more in federal income tax and are not collecting unemployment.

Oscar Kovelski .Also owned AutoWorld . Actually sat in his McLaren as a young snippit . Go to bangshift.com and look up the story/video on the Mclaren CanAm running at Laguna . Then check the comments . You’ll figure out which was me . Man that was a coincidence and a half ( the car in the video was the car my skinny little tush sat in )

( shhhhhh Don’t tell HtG . He’ll figure out what I play if you do … shhhhhhhhhhh )

FYI I’ve been a PRDA member in good standing ( such as it is) since the 70′s

Shadow . #4 for me

Polski forever !

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#30 – Well that and the fact that the EU banks are tighter than a well tuned snare drum when it comes to loaning out a dime for anything . They’re all making out banks look like ObamaClaus in comparison .

Boy the competition this year is more than a bit thin on the ground isn’t it 8)

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#33

Bob ! Where you been ? Haven’t you heard ? Our very own Johnny Mac has attained Sainthood . In the 1st GearHead Church of the Knobbly Shift Knob . Happened on Monday . Was ordained on Tuesday . Got his Halo today

Staying up late tonight to catch the Australian GP; hoping for a great season. It will be good to see how the teams perform under race conditions. Always the Ferrari fan (here), doesn’t maybe sound good for them (but hoping, in race, that they’ll be competitive). No matter, hoping for a fun season in F1.

Here is one for you guys who think they know:
CR does not give the Ford Fiesta and Focus a very good reliability rating. I assume the reason is due to the slow speed tranny quirk and “Touch System.” While away,I once again drove each of them and sensed no tranny problems worth my bitching. So what’s up with CR? And now that the touch system has been up-graded, I fail to see why the CR review is so harsh.

After reading pedros comment about the Sonic being a Rio,I also tried out one once again. It is just as nice as my first impression. I can only conclude,pedro, that you have to judge the car from experience,rather that what you think may be! If it was’nt a cost factor,I would choose a the Sonic over the Fit in a heart beat and I think the Fit is a swell car!

Before I purchased my 2012 Focus, I was aware of concerns with the Xmission and Ford My Touch. I deliberately went with the SEL model because the next model up came equipped with the My Touch. Like many posters have said before me, I think this type system (Touch screen) is a distraction to safe driving. IMO

I don’t get what all the fuss is about Detroit and believing the auto makers were responsible. It is/was a car town,after all! People moving to the burgs and a lack of other industries not tied to automotive is nothing unusual. This is just how things work when times get tough, PERIOD! Just wait until many car plants close in Europe and see if they don’t experience the same or worse fate.

And again, I am entertained by those jokers pledging not to by a Detroit product tied to bait outs. What country does’nt, what products have’nt recieved support and who can deny the fact that the auto industry has been the largest positive stimulus to the US economy for over the past 24 months? I know who: those idiots who think buying foreign is the answer. I say: If your not happy here,move to where you think it’s better!

#39 Cwolf I said the Aveo, not the Rio, and I’m just reporting on what they call it in the UK, they did not bother to change the name to Sonic, I guess Brits are more forgiving of crappy cars than we are. jUst got done watching Motorweek’s take on the Civic hybrid, despite their always positive spin on every damn car they test out, this car is as stupid to buy as a Smart, it costs a lot more than the Civic HF, get just a little more mpg’s and then there is the li. ion battery issue to contend with as well.

Pedro,
Brits are used to crap cars more than we are. They had to live with Lucas (The God of Darkness) electrial systems forever in their cars. So a car that ran at all was a plus for them. 20 years ago a Brit I work with told me that when kids were born there that they had a 3rd arm grafted to their chests so they could Jaguar V12 mechanics.

#42 Well aware of this, main reason I no longer watch UK Top Gear, besides the constant re-runs and Clarkson’s “I’m right all the time BS” their preference for everything European, no matter how unreliable, along with the anti-American and anti-Asian bias is more than I can handle.

Another new reason I won’t ever watch this show again, specially the one when they pitted the Prius against a BMW 3 series, as far as MW, if you care to look at an old youtube video, where they actually praise the Yugo when it first came out????

There is also a video review of the Yugo done by a local TV station here and you can see how bad and dangerous that thing really was! #44 I agree with you 100% MW tests reviews have become so predictable that their motto should be: “if it runs, we like it!” I wonder if they had the Fisker issue, if they would have reported on it, or just sent it back to the dealer and hush hush?

Range Rover Evoque- For 50-grand it is all style
and little substance. And a four banger engine
to boot. Perfect little thing for Tiffany or
Bree to drive around Beverly Hills on the
way to high school or the boutiques.

And Porsches being built by VW. VW?? Well, there
goes all the cache that Porsche buyers pay that
big premium for. Such sad new.

I’d told Kit it was Petrov’s contributions keeping Lotus Renault alive which shows my brain is still stuck in 2011

Its Grosjean’s € helping to keep Lotus F1 alive for his Pay to Drive

BTW – Kimi might wanna get more serious about Plan B if he’s going to keep up like this

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ALMS – Again . Not bad ehhhh ? But for a breakdown with one of the Audis I’d of hit 100 % on that one .

Oh well . Sometimes life works .

——

Pedro

MW – Dull , predictable and every car is wonderful in their eyes of late

Top Gear USA – A waste of good Air Time

Top Gear UK – WTH is the new season ? ( and come on their Pedro you really expect a Brit or a Euro to admit anything we make could possibly be good lately ? Not that much of what we do make right now IS worth a damn

Pedro,
I’ve been fortunate to see a few. There is guy up the road who has one as well as a Lambo. They are stunning machines. The frames are like art. Beautiful welding ,well thought out to appealing aesteticly as well as functional. Would love to have a ride in one some day. Owning one ,I don’t know, but as far as exotics go it is probably the easiest to live with. All others are needy service wise from what I hear. With the GT pretty much just a big v8 lump out back.

I don’t know what you guys are looking for, I’m commenting on MotorWeek here, they show you the track testing, list the times (you can see how the vehicles ‘handling’. And if you listen, they do, mention what isn’t ‘up to snuff’. They do report with an optimistic air but for a ten minute (usually less) car review, do a pretty good job (and in the car world today, there are rarely total pieces of crap being produced)so let the consumer decide. Speaking in general terms, M/W’s target audience is the mildly interested car enthusiast (not some of you pessimistic, biased, cranky auto-snobs).

#51 Chuck in the case of the last test of the Civic Hybrid for ex. despite its mediocre mpg’s for a hybrid and the premium price you pay over the base Civic, which gets close to the hybrid’s mileage, it’s just not worth it, not to mention the battery issue that kills the resale value of the car. Why can’t they say that? “Look elsewhere if you want maximum fuel efficiency and get your money’s worth” NO of course not, god forbid they should put down ANY car model they test for the fear they may piss off Honda and Honda stops providing them with test vehicles.

Hey don’t get me wrong, I watch it every week, I just find their positive spin at the end to be kind of pointless, just give the facts, Jack or John, and let the consumers/viewers draw their own conclusions. Now if you want no-holds barred, straight to the point reviews, then TTAC is the ticket, or CR.

Chuck the bottom line on this is that the Civic Hybrid continues to be a bad choice for people looking to get good MPG’s , Honda has failed to move the needle up for this vehicle in the “redesign” these are the things this report should point out. I have spoken to 2 owners of this car and they both have had to replace the battery at around or less than 100,000 miles, while the few Prius owners I’ve met, have had no such battery issues, big point there in the resale value for both cars.